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Gotlandish
contains a
number of archaisms together with innovations. Some characteristics are:
Ancient vowels, diphthongs and neologisms:
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The diphthong “au” and “ai” remain, for example in “auge” (Sw. öga, Eng. eye),
"stain”
(Sw. sten, Eng. stone). |
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Old long “a” remains, for example in “bat” (Sw. båt, Eng. boat).
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Old short “i” remains, for example in “skip” (Sw.
skepp,
Eng. ship).
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Old long “y” remains, for example in “fylgä” (Sw.följa
Eng. follow), “kyt” (Sw.
kött, Eng. meat).
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Long vowels like “i, y, u, o” and “e” have
have
developed to diphthongs, for example
in “bita” to “bäitä” (Eng. "bite"), “ny” to “nöi”,
“buk” to “bäuk” (abdomen).
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Pronunciation
| "g" and "k" are pronounced as [g] and [k]
i.e. "gick" , not like Swedish "jick". |
| Consonant groups "sk", "skj", "stj",
"dj" and "gj" are pronuncited as spelled. |
| Inflection of nouns differ from Swedish. |
| Adjectives are conjugaterd. |
| Sign of the infinitive is "ti" (compare Eng. to). " unlike
Swedish "att". |
Vocabulary
| Old words are still living
(compared to modern Swedish) |
| Words have been borrowed from Danish and low German. |
Accent
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The accent
is special.
A Swede immediately recognises a Gotlander
even
when
he speaks
Swedish.
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